Nearly Instant Halloween Accessories

I love this time of year. You can find all sorts of delightfully creepy things at the store, and shops open up just for Halloween.

I bought some very inexpensive spiders and bats to make accessories. The reason I got bright, colorful spiders is that they are less disturbing to the arachnophobe in my family.
To make the hair slides- the easy way is to use bobby pins that have a gluing pad. The thing is I don't actually like using those in my hair. So I did something a little different so I could use my preferred bobby pin type-

So for there easy spider hair pins, you will need:

• Bobby pins 
• Instant type glue (I used Krazy Glue)
• White craft glue (I used Elmer's Glue All)
• Craft felt
• Plastic spiders with a largish body
• scissors

Craft felt is made out of plastic, so are the spiders. Krazy Glue works great for bonding them together. Cut 4 strips per pair of spiders of craft felt that are about 1/4 inch wide and the length of the spider body. Glue one strip to the bottom of each spider. 

Slide the other strips into the bobby pins, and spread white craft glue on the craft felt on the spider, then press the strip in the bobby pin to the spider and hold for a couple minutes. Let the glue dry. 

Wow. See? Insanely easy. Now you could do a lot to the spiders before gluing them to the bobby pins. You could cover them in glitter, or use a plastic safe metallic spray paint on them. Make them as fancy as you'd like. 

Bat necklace!

Same thing, if you want, you can absolutely glitter or paint the bat. I went with plain black for mine. 

So for this one- you will need

• Plastic bats- they come in all sorts of colors. I have some that are neon green!
• chain
• 22 gauge wire- half hard if you have it.
• round nose pliers
• wire snips
• 1/8 inch hole punch

So this is just as easy as the project above, and if you're a jewelry crafter- you might have the supplies on hand. I used some copper chain that I had, and bronze 22 gauge wire. Bronze is fairly hard compared to copper- if you're using a soft wire, lightly hammer the hooks before attaching them to the chain to harden them slightly. 

Punch a hole in the top of both wings with the hole punch. Then cut 2 1.5 inch pieces of wire and coil the top into a loop, then curl the rest into a hook with a little bit curled over at the end. 

Put one wire on each end of the chain, and slide through the holes in the bat wings. 

Back in 2011, I posted a project for Eyeball hair sticks using the plastic eyeballs that available this time of the year. That project is also an instant costume. Moms always have eyes in the back of their head! 

Faultlessly crisp gorgeous creases with Faultless Premium

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Faultless/Bon Ami Company    for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.


I remember my mother ironing her cotton dresses with Faultless Spray Starch when I was a kid. Those beautiful dresses always came out looking so crisp and gorgeous, the skirts were beautifully full with perfect pleats, the collars were smooth and sharp. She looked so gorgeous and made it look so effortless.

My daughter doesn't wear tailored cotton dresses, but she does wear button down shirts. She wants them just as crisp and clean though, with nice creases down the arms. The shirt above is a cotton sateen shirt that's dark enough that flakes would show if Faultless left flakes. It doesn't though. Check out this sleeve!


It's easy to use, keeps clothing looking new and sharp, it doesn't clog and it absolutely won't leave flakes on your clothing. Spray, press, and wear. The little bit of extra time to make sure your pleats are pleated and your creases are sharp and your clothes look their best helps you feel like you look great and you're ready to do your best to impress. It's also easy to find, fabric stores, drug stores, grocery stores, a lot of major retailers carry Faultless Premium.

Just gorgeous! It's really easy to use, and comes in convenient sizes, including a good travel size. The large can is the one I used, and it's lightly scented with a clean cotton scent. It's easy to find a store that carries Faultless Premium Spray Starch, and they have a coupon available to download- Faultless Premium Coupon 

Faultless Premium can also be used in crafts. One of my favorites is super quick, bright summery necklaces. All you need is some lace that can be cut into motifs, some jump rings, some cord and Faultless Premium.



Spray lightly, iron, flip, spray lightly, iron, flip, repeat a couple times. It won't get super stiff, it will get crisp. Attach a jump ring, then string it on a cord.


Faultless Premium Starch is giving away $1,000 along with a year’s supply of Faultless Premium! It's easy to enter to win  the Faultless Starch Giveaway  for this fantastic prize package. 

• Visit the Faultless Starch Giveaway  page
• Watch the video of Ironing Board Sam singing the “Wrinkle Blues”
• Enter your information
• Share this link with your friends: http://bit.ly/1FP5Up4

Follow Faultless on Facebook for lots of tips, tricks and ideas.

Is Faultless a part of your wardrobe routine? I love how my tailored clothes look when they are starched and like to starch my hair ribbons as well. I think they tie into bows better that way. My daughter likes having knife sharp creases for some of her shirts. How do you use Faultless Starch?
 

Groovy Paper Pendant

Groovy right? Like I said before, I love peace symbols jewelry, but prefer handmade ones. The neat thing about this project is that you probably have all the supplies on hand.

There are 2 methods- I used the Cricut Explore Air to cut my pieces of peace (tried to resist the word play, failed.) The Cricut Explore Air is really nifty. It does all the wonderful things that the Cricut Explore does, it cuts, it draws, it embosses and scores, it uses the same online Design Space which makes it easy to upload your own images and cut, draw, emboss them. It has the same print and cut feature which let's you use your home printer from the interface to print a design then cuts it. But it's not chained to your computer- it works with Design Space application for iPad. I tried it! Sign in and all the stuff you have is still there. Cartridges you've loaded to your account, your own images, library items and things you've purchased, all there on the app. One of the really nice things about Cricut Explore is that you don't need to use vectors to create your own shapes. Upload images and shapes from your computer. Erase stuff, put new stuff in it, add text, it's all super easy.

So okay, done being all fangirl about the Cricut Explore Air (except that I really, really do love it)

The other method is obviously cutting out the pieces by hand. It's pretty easy too.

So how to make this groovy tie dye effect paper peace symbol necklace?

You will need:

• Card stock
• Scissors 
• Mod Podge!
• Nail polish in several colors
• Bowl of cool water
• skewer, chopstick or fork
• Ribbon
• optionally- Cricut Explore or Explore Air
• template

So you can print the template on cardstock. Size it to make the thickest peace symbol the size you want the finished pendant to be. You can fit 2 to a page for smaller peace symbols.

Or upload this image to your Design Space account, don't preserve the image, you just want the cutting lines. Upload it as a simple image. It's a transparent PNG so there won't be anything to clean up. 

Cut your peace symbols. Glue them together from thickest to thinnest using Mod Podge. Getting them exactly centered isn't really necessary. I didn't, as you can see, I used blue card stock. 

Let the Mod Podge dry overnight, then do the back of the peace symbols and let that dry. 

Mod Podge IS water soluble, but getting it wet quickly and not letting it soak won't ruin a project. This is a good thing because the next part, the tie dye effect part, uses water. 

Water and nail polish!

Inexpensive nail polish is just fine for this project. If you want to make this a party project with friends, you can cut and glue a bunch of the peace symbols, 1 per friend, then have them each bring a bottle of nail polish. Using a few colors with good contrast works best.

Now grab a bowl and fill it with cool water, then open your nail polishes and drizzle them into the bowl. 

Yeah, really. 

Then I used a skewer to cut through the colors and swirl them.

Isn't that neat looking? Then you'll hold the paper peace symbol by the edge and quickly tap the whole front into the floating layer of polish. Lift straight out. 

Place it polish side up on a safe surface to dry, and if necessary use a bit of tissue to pull water off the piece. You don't want to touch the polish, just touch the corner of the paper to the water and let it wick it up. 

Let the nail polish dry. Put your ribbon on, add beads if you'd like! 

I was provided a Cricut Explore Air at no cost for review purposes for my non-biased opinion, I was not given any other compensation, and this is my honest opinion and experience. 

Amazon.com links help pay for my addiction to book and new cast iron pans for The Amazing Turnip Girl, so I appreciate it whenever people can use my links! 

Below is a link for the Cricut Explore Air Wireless Bundle, and my own coloring book full of peace symbols and other groovy things. 

Shoe lacing with fold over elastic- slip on easy!

This is by request of a friend of mine who saw this photo I posted on Facebook

I laced up one of my pairs of sneakers with foldover elastic to make them easy to slip on and off, and have been wearing them like that for a week now, going for walks, etc- they've been holding up well. I did have to tighten the elastic a bit, but haven't had to tie my shoes, and they don't come untied. Plus I love the bright cheerful colors and plan to do this with the rest of my Chuck Taylors. It's less expensive than most no tie methods, and has a lot of options because there are so many colors and prints available for 5/8th inch foldover elastic. I got mine here- DIYSuppliesAndKits on Etsy

So cut about a yard of elastic per shoe, and start lacing following the diagram below. It's shown with each side in a different color to make it easier to follow.

Be careful not to twist the elastic, and adjust it so it's all wide and flat across the top of the shoe. 

Adjust the lacing to be comfortable after it's tied, and tie in a square knot on the underside between the two eyelets. Put a drop of glue into the knot to secure it. Trim the excess and put a light coat of glue on the cut ends to seal. I use PVA glue (Elmer's Glue All or Aleene's Tacky Glue type). 

Now I need to find the perfect elastic for the Wonder Woman shoes my dad got me! 

------

The last couple of weeks I've been very busy with my mom and dad's place. Packing things, deciding what gets donated, what we want to keep and getting my son all moved in. It's hard packing up a life, and deciding what goes and stays, and Dad never could do it with mom's things so it's a lot of stuff to go through. It has it's good moments. Finding old photos, or things I remember from childhood, but there is still a whole lot to go through. My daughter, who never really knew her grandmother (mom died when she was 2) but has heard all her life how much she looks like her has found that she and her grandma have a lot of the same taste in clothes. She was absolutely thrilled by a long red wool coat and finding her grandma's hats. William has been seeing photos he never knew about that have him with his grandpa. We are getting it done, but that's why I haven't been updating. I did finish the Color By Numbers Mandala coloring book too in the last month. 

Elastic watch band

This doesn't count as a tutorial, or even really a craft because it's too simple. But I'm really happy with it. My husband and I have been taking walks together, at the mall because it's really too cold and slippery to walk comfortably outside, and today I was wishing that I had a nice, old fashioned watch instead of checking my phone to see how long we'd been walking.

So I stopped in at Claire's at the mall and they had all sorts of clearance as usual. Including Christmas watches for 2.00 each.

So I cut the band under the watch face and it out of the watch pins, then cut a 9 inch piece of elastic and thread it through the pins, wrapped it around my wrist for a comfortable fit, tied it in an overhand knot, trimmed the ends, and there it is- a watch that I can slip on easily, is really comfortable to wear and it isn't a Christmas watch anymore.

If you haven't used foldover elastic- it's the same stuff that a lot of trendy ponytail holders are made out of now- and a pack of 4-5 of them costs a few dollars. But you know what? You can buy 5 yards of foldover elastic for the same price, cut it, knot it and make the ponytail holders the size you need. For me, that's "Fit around my wrist" size. For my daughter, it's a bit larger because her hair is so thick. Plus when you buy your own fold over elastic you have all sorts of options for colors and prints. I got the ones shown above from DIY Supplies On Etsy.

Pom Pom Bobby Pins

Bobby pins go by a few names, but by any name, they are pretty awesome for crafters because it doesn't take much to decorate one. This project uses standard bobby pins- the inexpensive ones that are on cards at the drug store.

To make the pom pom bobby pin-
Make pom poms, slide the pin into the piece of yarn that ties all the strands together. It's that easy. Make them in school colors for your kids, make them in sport team colors to support your favorite team, or just make them in fashion colors because pom poms are fun.

To make the pom pom:

There are a lot of methods for making pom poms. Using forms and pom pom makers, using forks, using your fingers. For small ones, I like using my fingers. This is my method for making them, and includes how to get the tying strand through without trying to poke it through fingers that are tied together with yarn.

You will need:
yarn- of course!
fingers
crochet hook- I like a size H for this, but just grab what's convenient.
scissors

Cut a strand of yarn about 8 inches long to use for the tie in the middle.

Then put the hook between the index and middle fingers on your non-dominant hand. I'm lefthanded, so it's in my right hand. The hook have the open side facing your finger tips.

Start wrapping. For a small, very full pom pom, I like 50-70 wraps with worsted weight yarn. 

Once it's full enough, put the tying thread over the open end of the hook.

Pull the hook through with the yarn.

Now tie one half of a knot around the middle of the yarn bundle, and slide carefully off your fingers. Finish the knot pulling tight.

Cut the loops open. When you do, you'll notice that because of the layers, the yarn ends are all sorts of lengths. That's okay, that's how it's supposed to look.

Flatten, then cut into a disk shape.

It still won't be perfect, but it's a lot closer at this point!

Now it's time to trim, just trim the ends that stick out until you have a nice round pom pom.

The reason you start with a larger size is both because you're going to trim it to size, but also because it makes it easier to knot the center and work a fuller pom pom.

This also works just fine to make larger pom poms, putting the hook between the index and ring fingers, and then wrapping around all 4 fingers. You'll have to do a lot more wraps, and if you want a matched pair, count your wraps. Large pom poms can be put on bigger bobby pins and used to accent a ponytail.

Mason Jar Lamp

The jar lamp above was so simple to make, it only takes knowing three knots. The simple overhand knot that everyone uses, and how to tie a good square knot, and a lark's head.

I use one of my Ball Heritage Blue jars for this, a strand of battery operated LED fairy lights, and inexpensive cotton cord from the local grocery store. The most expensive part is the strand of LED fairy lights at 10 dollars a strand, but they operate off of standard AA batteries so it's easy to swap out batteries. I also used aluminum foil to cover the battery case, and provide reflection. You can also use little LED tea lights.

This is the kind of cord I used- you can find it at Menards, Fred Meyers, and hardware stores- but it doesn't have to be this kind, any kind of medium weight household twine will work. Don't use yarn, it's too stretchy.

You will need:

• cord
• a jar (doesn't have to be a Ball Heritage jar, but isn't that pretty? This year they have GREEN jars!)
• scissors
• glue- I used Tacky Glue
• strand of LED fairy lights (optional- could use a battery operated tea light instead)
• foil

Cut 10 strands of cord 30 inches long- about an arms length from the center of your chest out to your finger tips if you don't want to measure! 

Then cut a piece that's about 14 inches long, fold the 10 long cords in half, and tie them in lark's head knots along the length of the 14 inch piece. Lark's head means you'll hold the loop on one side of the cord, then pass the ends around the cord through the loop and pull to tighten.

Take the lid and band off the jar, tie the 14 inch piece tight around the top of the jar under the threads, securing with a square knot.

A good square knot is a strong knot, accidentally switching the orientation of one side of the knot makes a granny knot which isn't a good knot. So always remember, right over left and twist, left over right and twist. 

Count 3 cords out from both sides of the knot, arrange those so they are directly opposite each other and the same distance from the center knot.Tie those two sets of cords together for the hanger. Tuck them into the jar for the time being.

Arrange the rest of the cords so they are spaced evenly around the jar, and take one right hand cord from pair, and a left hand cord from the cord pair to the left and tie a square knot about an inch down from the anchor cord. Repeat all the way around. If it helps to use a piece of cardboard to space them, do that.

Keep repeating that around, until you've made a set of knots that's about an inch past the bottom of the jar. 

Now for the trickiest part. Except it's not really tricky. Knotting the bottom so it will be flat enough to put on a flat surface if you don't want to hang it.
Please ignore the hair in the picture. I know better than snap these shots without putting my hair up first, but I was too excited about how good it looked with the fairy lights in it!

Tie the right hand cord from one pair to the left hand cord of the next pair in a square knot that's directly under the last row of knots. Repeat around.
Then do that again. Seal all the knots with a bit of glue and let the glue dry and trim the ends.

If you are going with the same set of battery operated fairy lights I used, make a loose pouch of the foil to put the battery case in, and stuff the whole thing in the jar. You'll need to be able to get to the switch so make sure it's on the open end of the pouch.

 These are the lights I used- they also come in blue so The Amazing Turnip Girl is making a jar lamp for her room using the blue lights.

Easy Duck® Brand Craft Tape Frame

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Duck Brand for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Duck Brand Craft Tapes are just a wonderful creative tool. They have created all these neat tapes like Duck Prism®, fabric tape, washi tape and glitter tape. My picture frame is made using Duck® Fabric Tape, but any of the craft tapes will work just great to make it.

Duck® Brand Fabric tape is easy to use. It comes with a liner on the back so the fabric doesn't get tacky, and the backing has a pattern that makes it easy to cut neatly.

To make this frame you'll need:
Duck Brand Craft Tapes, paper frame template, non-stick scissors, narrow ribbon

Download and print the template on card stock. Pick your size- at 100% it makes a 5 inch frame with 2.5 inch opening. Making it smaller would make a cute gift tag or small gift. Cut out the template, and the inner window. Score and fold in side tabs and main fold. Crease well.

Now start covering the outside with tape. Using the Duck® Brand Fabric Tape, you can cut length to the right size and take your time to get them placed, until you burnish it down, it's pretty positionable. Cut slits to fold over the edges in the inner edge of the window. Get the whole outside neatly covered.
Now it's time for the ribbon. The ribbon holds the frame closed. You'll put a small open loop on the inside of the back of the frame and a longer closed loop on the inside of the front of the frame.


So to put the picture in, you'll put it behind the window, then fold the side flaps over, then fold up the back flap. Slip the long ribbon loop through the small ribbon loop to close.
I follow @TheDuckBrand on Twitter- do you? If you do, and you make things with Duck Brand® Craft Tapes- share it and hash tag it #DuckCraftTape, and don't forget to Pin it too!
Now I need the Glitter Duck Brand® tape. Because everything is better with glitter.

Pom Poms! Book review, party and my big whoops

So I threw a little party to celebrate the brand new Poms Poms book by Sarah Goldschadt and Lex Walters Wright. There was much fun had. After discussing it with a few people, we decided to make the pom pom hedgehog paper weights on the cover. Hedgehogs are awesome and they are so cute it was irresistible.

Everything was in place. My daughter cut several pom pom makers using the pattern at the end of the book out of scrap packaging cardboard. Quirk Publishing was kind enough to provide supplies and give books to each of the party goers so we could have a fun time crafting. I got yarns, and felt in nice natural colors for people who wanted that and blue of course for my daughter.

We had donuts and coffee and laughed, went through the book discussing the various projects. I'm absolutely charmed by the big tulle pom pom head band. I told everyone about making the coffee filter pom pom then not being able to resist throwing it at my husband.

I took TONS of pictures. Of the felt, the yarn, cutting the pom poms, the really adorable hedgehogs. We made small ones, but my friend Teri made a big one with crystal eyes and a shiny crystal tear drop nose that was just made of cute.

Then I got home, and when I got ready to write this post, I found out that I didn't have a memory card in my camera.

That's the big whoops. This amazingly fun time that was just a great break from all the work that all of us have been doing on various things and at our jobs? Yeah, not one photo. Because I didn't make sure my memory card was back in my camera from when I took the photos of the moose on my way to Michaels to buy supplies to make the hedgehogs.

The hedgehogs are adorable.

The book includes projects to make all sorts of accessories and decorations. If you've seen tissue paper pom poms and liked them for wedding decor, you'll love the coffee filter ones with a hand dyed effect done with food coloring. The pom pom hedgehog paperweights are adorable. A scarf made of pom poms is fun and I think a great way to celebrate all sorts of things. You could make them for holidays or to show school spirit.

Making them with friends is the most fun and the projects would be good for tweens and on up. The simplicity of a pom pom, made using a few different techniques works for all sorts of projects and this book will just get you started. Full color photographs and well written instructions along with a complete pattern section including templates to make the pom pom makers make it easy to create the projects shown. No fancy techniques, just lots of fun.

The first part of the book is the projects. 25 and all of them are simple enough to do in an afternoon and some of them can be done in an hour. I like instant gratification projects! The end of the book covers the various techniques for making pom poms and for stitching things that need stitching. Even better? There is a whole section on wrapping styles. So you can make pom poms that are dotted, striped, speckled or half and half. I want to try the "beach ball" effect to make big rainbow pom poms that I can wear in my hair. (I will get a photo of that when I do it.)

Go like Quirk Books on Facebook, and check out the completely free sampler e-books (Quirk Books D.I.Y. Gift Guide and Quirk Books Entertains Your Kids) they have available on Amazon. 

Here are the photos of the moose that caused the whoops.






Full disclosure- Quirk Books sent complimentary copies of the book for review purposes and for my party guests. They also paid for the supplies. This is my honest opinion of the book. All Amazon links are my affiliate links and the money that I make from them helps pay for this site and my book addiction.